She doesn’t even bother with a tease. Her bra simply falls off to reveal scars jagged like hand-drawn lightning bolts.
“Gentleman, let’s hear it for Cherry.”
I clap politely like a proud parent at a Spelling Bee while the others
Fiction
Welcome, Jess
Anna was driving us to Wisconsin, and I was in the passenger seat, fussing with the white seam on my—on Anna’s—navy blue swing dress. I’d started borrowing her dresses and skirts after her eyes lit up at me the first …
Saint Rita
I’m no Catholic, but I’m thinking of Saint Rita. My friend Cathy says Rita is the Saint of the Impossible, and since we work the night shift in transcription for HealthWest, me and Cathy get the impossible from 11p to …
Red C
“I’m going to need to return a piranha,” Zeirna Brinck said to the man at Red C Exotics.
“Did I sell you a piranha?”
“No.”
“Then it’s not a return.”
Zeirna studied the man. Receding hairline. Odd blue dot on …
Rain Did This
Some of us are fine sitting on the small steps to our small jobs. I was always fine with it. You could find me on the doorsteps to Malkia Boutique on any given day save Sunday. But that rainy Dar …
Publisher’s Deposition: The Famished Dick and the Wicked of the Earth
I quite understand that it is unusual for a publisher to write an introductory preface to a novel. But the circumstances of this novel are so unusual that I am compelled to author this note to the reader. There are …
Add This to the List of Things That You Are
After she has utterly denuded it by removing all her furniture and every trace of her, move from the lovely cabin you shared together. The lovely cabin in the Santa Cruz Mountains with views out over the redwoods to the …
Maribelle
Before they found Maribelle, Arlo and Sam were scavenging the remains of a farmhouse. Just piles of charred wet wood and muddy ash. The fire had burned so hot the steel springs from a mattress were melted into a tangle …
Gdansk
This is not your first time in St. Stanislaus’s Cathedral.
The January evening after shoplifting the pregnancy test for Miriam, you were grateful to duck in the side door under the frieze when the policja unexpectedly gave chase. Months later, …
Cinema Verité: Scenes From the City
a PechaKucha in prose
1
You are still in the doldrums, working your way towards the American dream. Months later and you haven’t made much progress in the way of an airfare. Time is slipping away, threading its way through …
